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COAPRT Accreditation

Accreditation

Frostburg State University’s Recreation and Park Management Program received initial accreditation in 2000. Currently, the program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation for Parks, Recreation, Tourism, and Related Professions (COAPRT). COAPRT accredits baccalaureate programs in parks, recreation, tourism, sport management, event management, therapeutic recreation, and leisure studies offered at regionally accredited institutions within the United States and its territories, and at nationally accredited institutions in Canada and Mexico. In turn, COAPRT is accredited by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Student Benefits from Accreditation

Accreditation is an assurance of quality in education. By earning your degree from an accredited program, students can earn a degree that is designed to prepare them for entry into the recreation and parks discipline. The accreditation process is designed to provide students with experiential experiences, hands-on training, active engagement in the community, and an up-to-date curriculum delivered by quality educators.

Suggested Additional Evidence of Compliance

The institution is required by COAPRT to publish aggregated results of learning outcomes or assessment results indicating the quality of the program. The following is a sampling of these materials.

Using a six year average, the program graduates 28 students per year. There is a 97% completion rate for majors.

The CPRS (Certified Park and Recreation Specialist) has five competency areas (financial, human resources, operations, programming, and management/administration). When completing their internships, students reference completion of these competencies in their journals. On average, 73 percent of the students referenced these competency areas in their internship journals two or more times.

The average student teaching evaluations for the Department are 4.61 on a five point scale. This is on par with the College of Education (4.61) and the University (4.64).

The program conducts an academic advising survey of senior level students. Overall, 81% of the students rated their academic advising as very good and 19% rated their advising as good. In response to the question that “My advisor assisted me in developing a plan which moved me toward graduation in a timely manner,” 79% of the students strongly agreed and 21% agreed with the statement. In response to the question that “My advisor assisted me in linking my career goals or what I want to do when I graduate with the curriculum (e.g. courses, conferences attended, field experiences, etc.),” 79% of the students strongly agreed and 21% agreed with the statement.

Be Aware of Degree Mills

As part of the accreditation process, the program has the responsibility to inform the public about the harm of degree mills and accreditation mills. The following statement is important information about degree mills.

CHEA requires accredited institutions to inform the public about “degree and accreditation mills.” Cautions concerning these are summarized in a video that can be viewed at http://chea.org/public_info/video_degree_mills.asp. According to CHEA, Degree mills and accreditation mills mislead and harm. In the United States, degrees and certificates from mills may not be acknowledged by other institutions when students seek to transfer or go to graduate school. Employers may not acknowledge degrees and certificates from degree mills when providing tuition assistance for continuing education. “Accreditation” from an accreditation mill can mislead students and the public about the quality of an institution. In the presence of degree mills and accreditation mills, students may spend a good deal of money and receive neither an education nor a useable credential. Read more on CHEA’s website, http://chea.org/degreemills/default.htm.

University Accreditation

Frostburg State University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (267.284.5000). The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.